Thursday, May 22

Back to business; Cap, Thor, Runaways movie news

I'm back from Missouri, so the pace should pick up here at C&T. Over the past week I've mostly learned that (1) St. Louis is still lovely this time of year, (2) John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces lives up to the hype, and (3) the debut record from The Modern Lovers is awesome.

The big news in my world this morning is another update from Marvel Studios.

Captain America and Thor

After some prodding in an interview, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed that the Captain America movie will be set in WWII, and the Thor flick will take place primarily in Asgard. Both revelations have me quite excited. A Cap flick in the style of Saving Private Ryan? Sign me up. Feige also confirmed that Cap's shield shows up in Iron Man... I suppose we'll find out later what that means.

Elsewhere, the Hollywood Reporter notes that Marvel's Runaways franchise is in the early stages of film development. The movie will be written by Runaways creator Brian K. Vaughan (also writer/co-producer of Lost) -- and that is wonderful news. Runaways is a newer Marvel property, and features a group of teenagers (and a dinosaur!) who learn that their parents are supervillains. Vaughan wrote the firstthreevolumes of the series to critical acclaim, and it has since been written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly creator Joss Whedon. Runaways generally ignores the cliches of the superhero genre, and I could see it becoming a sort of Goonies for the current generation. I'll certainly be watching its development with interest.

I'll try to play catch-up in the next few days, but the spring Georgia weather is calling my name...